Custom Card Ideas: Soul of the Phoenix

No one likes to die in a game of Munchkin (mostly). You lose all of your equipment, one shot items, and cards you have yet to play. The end of your turn comes immediately while you get to watch others loot your corpse. Even better, you can't do a thing until your turn comes back to you, letting that second player get that winning level right after your death. For all those who hate death and being dead behold, the Soul of the Phoenix!

After creating the card first and having confusing wording, I bring you the second, and much more clear, edition of the Soul of the Phoenix card!

"The user's level now counts as a Fire attack. Discard this card when you die. You keep all of your current cards but do not draw new cards. You also remove all Curses off your character."

This Soul card is essentially a one-shot, like Soulstealer, Soul of the Nausea, or Soul of the Fickle. If you die, this becomes a Get-Out-of-Death-Free card. However, it doubles as a constant effect card as well, allowing your Level to count as a Fire type attack. That may double your Level against some enemies, such as Frost Giant, but may also nullify it completely (against Dragons in Pathfinder). It also pairs nicely with Madness! Pyromania! from the Cthulu deck.

An added bonus is the Curse-removal effect. Being hit with lingering or permanent Curse effects, such as Change Sex or Chicken on your Head, may make this card highly attractive.

This card is meant to be easy insurance. You don't have to worry about death. Jump into fights with challenging monsters that threaten to kill you and don't sweat it when your rivals start stacking it up. The Fire side-effect can occasionally be bad (especially in Pathfinder) but more often than not you'll find it a happy boon, netting you extra points against snow-based foes.

Furthermore, this stacks really well with the item Ritual Knife. You get rid of the one negative effect and still gain a level. Keep in mind that you don't get new cards, nor if you die and resurrect immediately do you get to opt out of being a helper to another player's fight with monsters. It still procs things like Rocks Fall, Everybody Dies and Genocide however, and Genocide doesn't hit twice, leaving you alive after the card is played with everything else (aside from this Soul card, obviously).

You might be confused as to when the character/player is resurrected. The answer is immediately upon death. Fighting a monster by yourself? You die, it leaves, and you resurrect. Fighting a monster with someone else? You die, the monster stays around because the other player is still alive, and you come back before the fight officially happens.

If an effect (Curse/Item/Monster) causes your death, you die, the effect is over (or takes its effect on other players) and then you resurrect. With Soul of the Phoenix, there is no Looting the Body phase because you retain all of your cards.

Interested in hearing more about my Munchkin Soul Card series?

I've got plenty more Munchkin Custom Card Ideas that I invite for you to look through. Also, as I've spent far too money on numerous Munchkin decks and expansions, I can tell you which ones are worth it, which aren't, and why.